December 13, 2010

Turns out, conservatives love judge who strike down legislation from the bench, if its legislation they don't want. Evil judges undoing the will of duly election representatives is great, if those representatives were D's.

Now this is not even close to being over, as a couple of judges have already ruled the other way. So look for this to end up with the Supremes sooner or later.

Oh and by the by, striking down the individual mandate won't undo HCR. It could very well undo the private health care sector if the rest of the reforms go forward, but plenty of HCR easily passes Constitutional muster.

December 8, 2010

Nobody dies, but reputations, finances, and long stretches in prison are all in play. Turns out, despite the hacker credo, some information really doesn't want to be free. Or will result in massive amounts of shit raining down on your head if it gets out.

Of course, for every action there is reaction, and the hacker do what they can to strike back, but in the end, lots of powerful people want their information private and will act to keep it so.

December 6, 2010

A significant production problem with new high-tech $100 bills has caused government printers to shut down production of the new notes and to quarantine more than one billion of the bills in huge vaults in Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, DC, CNBC has learned.

You know in books, you get a creased page and can't read what going on for two pages. When that happens with money, big problem.

November 23, 2010

North Korea has shot-up a South Korean island. An inhabited South Korean island. Two South Korean Marines are dead, a number of South Korea civials are wounded and wrecked numerous homes. What the hell? Between this and the incident where North Korea torpedoed a South Korean ship, it really looks like North Korea is trying to start some shit. We are talking act of war here.

Which is crazy. The North Koreans are out gunned and know it. A full blown war will be a bloody mess, but North Korean is sure to loose. So what kind of game are they playing? Are they trying to get as close to war as possible and then pull back? Keep everyone off balanced with the North under pressure over its nukes and impeding leadership change? I don't know, but this is a crisis, no doubt.

November 22, 2010

Why is junk touching the last line to be crossed? We torture people. We fight wars. We get monitored on video. We get surveilled without warrants. Everything and anything get justified in the name of security, but a light brush past your crotch is the last straw? We give up all kinds of rights all the time, but the slightest hint of the wrong kind of sex (Dudes! Near my Junk!) and we suddenly turn into raging libertarians.

November 17, 2010

The metaphor is waaay to easy, but what is currently going down on Dancing with the Stars is too good to pass up. I'm getting all of this second-hand, by the by. I have yet to watch a single minuet of the show, but a full blown culture war has broken out. The single-mom daughter of everyones favorite half-term Governor is on the show. And despite the fact she's a terrible dancer, she has stayed on the show on the strength of an organized tea party effort to pump up her votes. This week Bristol made it to the finals, sending Brandy (you know, from the 90's) home despite the fact that Brandy is a great dancer. So here you have it - the essence of tea party and Palin - inflicting bad dancing on Country just to make the point that your tribe is better. The same people that will vote for a bad dancer just because she's a Palin will vote for a total disaster of a President just because she's a Palin.

November 16, 2010

My working assumption is that the GOP controlled House will be indistinguishable from a House controlled by greedy little children. Case the first, a newly elected Republican, who dedicated his campaign to screwing people out of thier health care, really wants his government health care right now.

November 8, 2010

Let me get this straight. Gavin Newsom has moved from running one of the premier cities of the world to a job where his only duty is to get up each morning and ask how Jerry Brown is feeling, and that's a move up?

November 4, 2010

...and only care about voting in Presidential electiona. In the course of breaking down Pot's current loss and future prospects, MY breaks out a chart showing that the under-30 crowd's share of the electorate dropped from 18% to 12% from this election to 2008. This isn't an unusual thing. Off-year elections always run older. But Obama's appeal is especially weighted to the younger crowd and away from the older. 65+ was the only age category to vote against him in 2008. When they go from 13% of voters to 20% of voters, we have trouble. Not just in votes on pot, but votes on everything. Including, for example, the House of Representatives! So for the next four years, find somebody under 30 and educate them as to the importance of voter in off years. Governors are important! House Members are important!

November 3, 2010

Well, that's what it feels like to get your ass kicked. The GOP is picking up 60+ seats in the House which makes the tan one Speaker. The GOP picked up a bunch of Governorships and Senate seats, but the Dems took California and will hold the Senate. Thank the Tea Party for the Senate. In several states most notably Nevada and Delaware, conservatives picked out wild-eye maniacs who lost to incumbents in the best year the GOP will have in decades.

I really don't get California voters. Dems won top to bottom State-wide, but pot lost big, we lowered the budget vote requirement to 50%, but added at 2/3rds vote for fees and kept billions in tax cuts for corporations. We voted for climate change legislation and against State Park funding. We are everywhere and nowhere.

Welcome to the new gridlock. Remember how liberals complained about not getting what they everything they wanted as major pieces of legislation got passed? Well they are not going to do that anymore, because nothing is getting passed. The GOP is deep in the red mist right now, no deals are going to get done. We are at a standstill for two years.

November 1, 2010

This paragraph from Michael Kazin sums up pretty well my own problem with Jon Stewart:

Civility is a fine and pleasant thing, but it has never inspired a serious political or social movement—or revived the fortunes of a president. Irony and satire can be potent modes of persuasion, but what do Stewart and Colbert’s liberal supporters want to persuade their fellow Americans to actually think or do? The Comedy Central duo has done a reasonable job highlighting what they think is wrong with our system of government, the people seeking to influence it, and the media covering it. But time spent by liberal rally-goers and Daily Show viewers complaining about how politics is conducted would be better spent deciding what issues to promote, fight for, and win. In a time of economic crisis and fears of national decline, it is not enough to make fun of the lies and sloppy thinking of the right. People need to engage in the political process to reform and push it forward, not agree that we’re all more reasonable than the media portray us and promise to behave civilly.

If we fight for "common sense" and "civility" and they fight for their policy goals, then theyare going to win. We can be civil when we fight. No need to compare our opponents to Hitler, just because they do it to us. And I'm all for using as much humor and satire as we can lay our hands on.But we do need to fight for what we believe in.John Stewart's recommended course of action seems to be "stop the fighting." His attack on Crossfire, his moment of seriousness at the rally, it all comes down to stop the fighting. But "stop the fighting" can quickly turn into "stop fighting." It takes two to make this stop and I for one have no intention of laying down for the right to keep Jon Stewart mellow.

October 25, 2010

Proposition 19. Pot Legalization. Sure its not the best-written law ever. That's what happens when pot-heads write your law. Yes it will provoke the Feds. But that's part of the fun. Drug laws need to change in this Country. Marijuana is the place to start. California is the place to start. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 20. Redistictring. Add Congressional districts to the citizen's redistricting commission that passed the last time around. Helps to cut down on politicos drawing their own safe districts. Why weren't Congressional districts included in the first go-around? Because the Proposition process is a bad way to do business. But you should still vote for this. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 21. License Charge for Park Funding. This one is 18 extra bucks on your car registration to fund State parks. State parks have been taking it on the chin in the budget mess and we have too many cars in California anyway. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 22. Ban the State from taking money from local districts. Just what we need, more restrictions on how money gets spent in California. Because the budget process isn't hard enough as it is. Taking money from the locals isn't my favorite budget move, but if you won't raise taxes and want to keep the prisons open, you need to take local transportation money. If there isn't any money, you can't pass a Proposition to keep spending money. The Chant Recommends NO.

Proposition 23. Suspends Climate Change Law. God, I hate Propositions. This is from the oil companies. Its a law to let them keep what they are doing, screwing the planet to make more money. The line about jobs is total crap. Look, energy jobs are jobs no matter what kind of energy is being made. You can make money drilling for oil or by installing solar panels. We need laws the encourage the latter, so we don't all die of thirst in a 100 years. The Chant Recommends NO.

Proposition 24. Cancels tax cuts for Corporations. Somehow, in the middle of a massive budget shortfall the Leg passed billions in tax cuts for big companies. That's a shortfall that gets paid for by cuts to education, roads, and everything else the State pays for. Time to spread the pain to our betters. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 25. Ends two-thirds requirement to pass budget. Oh hell yes. The two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget is the worse procedure in government. You want a budget passed on time? Then make it easier to pass a budget. The Chant Recommends YES.

Proposition 26. Require two-thirds vote to pass fees. Oh hell no. We've been over this before. You require a two-thirds vote on things you don't want to pass ever. This Prop would make it impossible to require that polluters pay for the damage they cause. Fees are good things. They pay for stuff, and they get paid for by the people who make needing the stuff happen. The Chant Recommends No.

Proposition 27. End the Redistricting Commission. This one ends the Redistricting Commission that got approved last election before it draws its first district boundary. Why is it on the ballot the same time as a measure to expand the Commission's mandate? Because the Proposition system in California is really screwed up. The Chant Recommends No.

October 20, 2010

The other blog that I write for, Questionable Stoppage, covers mixed marital arts and fighting. I naturally assumed there would be little cross-over between that and this. However:

For you political only types, baldy is Dana White, President of the UFC and the biggest fight promoter in the world. Mohawk is Chuck "The Ice Man" Lidell, legendary MMA fighter. Reid is currenty in the (political) fight of his (political) life and the election is just a couple of weeks away. White and Lidell showed up to help Reid out at a Get-Out-the-Vote rally.

Here are the White and Reid voting:

This may be the only time in the history of both blogs I can put the same post up on both. Hat tip to Cage Potato for the pics.

October 19, 2010

Media Matters has put together an entire alternative history based on Glenn Beck's version of events. My favorite:
1787: Constitution's drafters include $10 tax on persons "imported" into country to teach immigrants the "value" of being American.

This exercise is useful to show how much of a parallel universe Beck has created. The gap between the conservative and the real grow ever further apart.

October 18, 2010

So Alaska Senate candidate Joe Miller had his private security "arrest" a local blogger/reporter at a public event. Apparently, under Miller's version of the Constitution, you can't have Medicare or a minimum wag but you can have your own private security force haul reporters away in handcuff if you don't like the questions they ask. Apparently Joe Miller loves the Constitution so much that it does whatever Joe Miller wants. The Constitution makes illegal everything Joe Miller doesn't like and gives Joe Miller all the power he wants.

October 7, 2010

Just like every single anti-gay public figure out there seems to be picking up dudes in bathrooms and hiring out "rent boys" all anti-immigration spokespeople will eventually be shown to have hired undocumented immigrants. Its only a matter of time.

October 6, 2010

Meg Whitman has spent 140 million dollars in her run for Govenor of California. This staggering amount, combined with a scandle over hireing a undocumented maid, equals...being down a couple of points to Jerry Brown, who has spent only 11 million. Guess where the poll were at the start of the year? Jerry Brown was ahead by a couple of points. Meg Whitman could have bought a couple more jets, or bought the whole State a couple of rounds, or used the money to fund, say, job programs in California. Instead she spent it all on a race she's going to lose.

October 3, 2010

October 1, 2010

You know, I find this kind of refreshing. Rahm has always been very straightforward about wanting to be Mayor of Chicago, and the opportunity presented itself, and he's going for it. He never made a false front about not wanting the job, or acting reluctant, or pretending to not be ambitious. That's got to count for something.

September 30, 2010

From David Brin's FB feed, I present the top ten most Intriguing Exoplanets. We are finding planets outside the solar system all the time these days. You can not believe how excited this makes my inner nerd. Exoplanets are vitally important to make 90% of science fiction real. I believe XKCD captures my feelings best:

September 29, 2010

1. Why is Gloria Allred always at the center of these shit-storms? Do you mean to tell me, there are no other publicity hound attorneys in the entire state of California?

2. Why, at this late date, are rich and powerful political types still getting killed over hirering undocumented maids and nannies? This have been a political bomb science at least the early nineties, when a couple of Bill Clinton AG nominees came undone over this very same thing. I'm not rich, so I don't know the nanny/maid market very well, but are there nothing but undocumented workers for hire in this field?

3. Why bother to spend 120 million and counting for a political race that will come undone for somebody you paid minimum wage to?

September 23, 2010

Anybody look over the new House GOP's policy agenda? I know, you rushed to read it all as soon as it came out. What strikes me after my quick review is how negative and backward-looking it all is. Undo the stimulus. Undo Health Care Reform. Keep the Bush tax cuts. Add a few more tax cuts. Undo regulation. The only forward looking part is the bombing Iran thing. The basic message of Republicans is "so you know all those problems you have American People, with jobs, and the economy and health care? Well, we are going to undo everything that's been done in the last year and a half to deal with those problems. Your Welcome."

September 22, 2010

Where good legislation goes to die. They managed to kill efforts to end 'don't ask, don't tell" and the DREAM act all with just one vote. And a vote where a 56 vote majority was in favor of both. This is no way to run a Country.

September 21, 2010

Eight officials from the city of Bell have been arrested for the crime of being paid too much for running a small city. Yet all kinds of banking officials remain at large while being paid hundreds of times what Bell officials made. Oh and the bankers destroyed the whole economy!

September 20, 2010

Finally, a name worthy of a massive storm of destruction. Igor is a proper name for a bad guy. James Bond villains are named Igor. Katrina and Camille and Betty are names of girls you want to ask out for coffee, if only you could work up the nerve. Hurricane's should be limited to names of evil: Morlock, Azazel, Ripper. No more Bob or Jeff or Sue.

September 18, 2010

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, last seen getting bounced from her Primary by the tea party, is going to mount a write-in campaign in the General Election. I know what you're thinking. "Why in a three way race the Democrat has a real shot, we could end up winning a Senate seat in Alaska in what's supposed to be a Republican year." What, you're not thinking that? Is it just me? Well its true.

September 17, 2010

We liberals, because we are subject to it all the time, take for granted that most conservative commentary is vicious, lie-filled smears. So its always a pleasure to see conservatives discover this fact when the rare conservative civil war breaks out.

Now in no way will this affect anyone larger place in the movement. In a few weeks Mark Levin will claim that Obama is trying to destroy motherhood, or go on a lengthy rant about how fat Hillary Clinton ankles are, and the same people who no know that he is a vicious infant with a microphone will hail him as a brave truth telling.

September 15, 2010

They knocked off Mike Castle. It really is amazing. Castle was a Delaware institution, holding all kinds of offices for the last 30 years. He was the only kind of Republican that could win in liberal Delaware - very moderate and incredibly well-known. And now he's been beaten by a women who opposes masturbation. This has turned a sure GOP pick-up into a sure GOP loss.

September 13, 2010

Once again, a mushy member of the Republican establishment is on the verge of being swept out by yet another nutball tea partier, this time in Delaware, a state not really known for anything, including right-wing politics. Which once again leaves us with the question- better to run against nut-balls who are more likely to lose, or risk a completely insane GOP taking power and ending the Republic?

Call it the Palin question, because, while this question revolves around Sarah at the Presidential level, its playing out in a whole bunch of Senate and Congressional races as well. Of course the GOP will do what it will, all the left half of the Country can do is watch, fight it out in the general, and make fun where appropriate.

September 8, 2010

Why now? Why, ten years after 9/11, are we seeing an anti-Muslim frenzy? Koran burnings? A media circus over a community center? I could understand these things in the direct wake of 9/11. People were scared out of their minds and ready get their 5 minute hate on. But its been nine years now. There hasn't been a terrorist attack in the US since 9/11. Sure the wars are still going, but we've been in Iraq and Afghanistan, taking casualties for the same nine years.Their certainly hasn't been any new events to drive this. Things like the Danish cartoon controversy are well in the past. So why now?

My guess is the economy and the tea-baggers. Bad economics always lead to nasty movements. Bashing others is a sure-fire reaction when times are tough. The other part of this is that the tea party reaction has removed all restrain from the conservative movement in this Country. If their is one founding principal of the tea party is that there is no policy too reactionary, that one cannot go too far to the right. So an "Anti-Muslim frenzy" is perfectly consistent with a movement that is in an Anti-Obama, Anti-Liberal, Anti-Moderate Republican, Anti-What-Do-Got frenzy as well.

September 7, 2010

As evil plans go, this one is a dozy. In an attempt to divert votes from Democrats, GOP operatives in Arizona have recruited homeless people to run as Green Party candidates. And people wonder why people are cynical about the election system.

September 2, 2010

The Discovery Channel strikes me as the least likely. Political channels sure, but then I care about politics. But Discovery? How on earth do documentaries on crab fisherman drive you to do anything, much less get a gun, take hostages and get yourself killed? I guess in the end its the crazy and not the reason, that does it.

September 1, 2010

Obama marked the end of combat in Iraq yesterday in an event which is about as anti-climatic as you can get in something that includes "President" "War" and "Ending." Iraq is just kinda puttering to an end, with a long slow withdrawal that really satisfies no one and get no one excited. "No Drama" being the watchword of this Administration, even in matters of war and not war (peace is a little too much to say in a Country where care bombs still go off.)

Oh, and Lisa Murkowski has conceded up in Alaska. Whatever else the tea party is, it is very good at knocking off conservative Republicans in primaries and replacing them with extra-conservative challengers.

August 30, 2010

Every single protest/march/gathering a massive argument breaks out over how many people showed up. Glenn Beck is claiming 500,000 people fell for his charlatan act last weekend. CBS, using actual photos of the event and not a fever vision, puts the number at 96,000 tops. Be it black men or teabaggers or anti-war folks, no one can ever agree. The organizers claim a lot and everyone else says a lot lower number.

In fact, the Federal Park service long ago gave up trying to estimate how big the crowds on mall were, because it became such a poltical football.

I propose a government agency to solve this. The National Agency to Figure for Real How Ginormous the Crowd Coulda Been or NAFRHGCB (pronouced "Nah-Forgetaboutit" with a Boston accent) It will be run by a committee of ten with five Democrats, 4 Republicans (my idea, my rules), and one guy representing those anti-nuke guys who are in front of the White House every single day. The Agency will gather the best minds in the science of crowd size estimation and have a budget of millions to carefully and completely produce a report on the exact size of the crowd.

Which will then be ignored as everyone pushes their own number to suit their agenda.

August 29, 2010

Republican primary voters will punish elected officials for several crimes. They will throw you out for not acting conservatively enough and...that's about it. You definitely won't lose your seat for banging hookers. David Vitter, notable pro-family Republican and hooker-banger, just got renominated overwhelmingly last night. Nice job, party of family values.

August 27, 2010

August 26, 2010

Take a look at maybe-Senate nominee Joe Miller's positions. He's conservatism turned up to 11. No abortions period, even in cases of rape and incest, eliminate Medicaid, there should be no government employment benefits, full stop.

Could this kind of program ever make it in the real world? If the Joe Miller program came about, and no one got got employment benefits and the tens of millions of people on Medicaid got no health care and the government worked to make sure that women had to carry their rapist babies to term? Could we even survive as a County in Joe Miller's world?

August 25, 2010

Several States had their primaries last night and many results were had. In Florida, the slimy Republican Billionaire won and the slimy Democrat Billionaire lost. GOPer Rick Scott, the former health care CEO who's company paid massive fines for defrauding Medicare, won the nomination for Florida Governor, while super party guy Jeff Greene lost in the Democratic Senate Primary.

John McCain won his primary over conservative gas-bag J.D. Hayworth. In the end, it wasn't even close. Of course, John McCain had to dump just about every last bit of his political persona to get to this win. McCain disavowed his previous support for climate change legislation, immigration reform, campaign finance reform, and reform in general. Hell, he even declared himself "not a maverick." Oh John. Why even run?

Dan Qualye's son Ben won the primary for an Arizona congressional seat, despite...well, despite a lot of things. Its a Republican district, so he's likely to be Congressman Qualye by the end of the year. Those Qualyes, always failing up.

The shock result of the night seems to be Sen. Lisa Murkowski losing in Alaska's Republican Senate primary to Tea Party insurgent Joe Miller. This being Alaska, they have to run the last few votes in by sled dog or something, but Murkowski is currently down 3,000 votes. Murkowski had issues. Her dad, the former Governor of Alaska appointed her to the seat in 2003 in one of the most blatant acts of nepotism I've ever seen. She opposed the Obama Adminitration, but wasn't an ass about it, which counts as moderate in the Tea Party era. And naturally, Palin is involved. Palin backed Murkowski's opponent Miller, not so much over issues, but as part of a long standing intra-family pissing match between the Murkowski and Palin clans. With Palin, its always personal. So expect Palin to get plenty of the "hail the conquering hero" treatment if Miller pulls this out.

Alan Grayson shows us how its done. While other Democrats try and survive by ducking votes and running away from fights, Grayson plans on surviving and thriving by picking fights and generally making a spectacle of himself. Grayson doesn't represent a safe district. The normal playbook to win in such a district is to act as much like a Republican as possible. We shall see if the Grayson way works

August 20, 2010

Remember Viktor Bout, the real life "Lord of War?" The highly evil arms dealer and inspiration for the movie. Well in the movie (spoiler alert) the arms dealer is arrested but released, due to his powerful friends in the United States government.

Well, as it turns out, sometime you can be too cynical. Not only are the Feds not springing Bout, they are extraditing him from Thailand and are going to try him on a whole host of charges.

So hey, the world doesn't suck as much as you though. We get the Hollywood ending in real life.

August 19, 2010

Want to make the baseball steroid scandal even better? Just add Congress. Sure you can lie to the public, the media, the fans. But lying to Congress is a crime. A crime which Roger Clemens now stands accused indicted of.

Sure when Congress held those steroid hearing it was a show and everybody, players and Congress-critters did their grandstanding, but in the end, you swear to tell the truth, and it looks like Clemens didn't.

Couldn't have come at a better time. Let's hope this circus takes attention away from the Cordoba House. If we have to burn baseball to keep religious freedom in America. I'm ok with that.

August 17, 2010

Nothing helps gin up a war like a sense of crisis. Remember how Iraq was so close to building a nuke and we HAD TO ACT RIGHT NOW. Well, I'm pretty sure there is exactly zero interest in the United States in getting into a third Middle Eastern war at the moment, but the warmongers are trying to get it going.

Here's everyone's favorite anti-diplomacy diplomat John Bolton calling on Israeli to bomb Iran in the next 8 days. The warmongers are trying to impose a sense of crisis and fear to override common sense. And if this deadline passes? Well, we will soon have another deadline, which if bombs don't drop, SOMETHING TERRIBLE will happen.

I find Tea Party opposition to Net Neutrality to be fascinating, because it represents just how far their anti-government agenda will go. The Tea Party world view is pretty simple - government is the opposite of freedom. No matter matter what. The tea vanguard would rather be screwed by corporation every day of the week and twice on Sundays rather that accept government action. It doesn't matter that corporations trying to set up a multi-tier Internet are the true threat to free speech and free markets. To the right-wing, the only threat can come from government. Corporations can loot your pension, but the true threat is Social Security checks. Tea party-ites will fight to the death for the right of a corporation to give your child cancer. Because a government with the power to stop your child from getting cancer is too powerful in the Tea Party worldview. They would have the internet burn to ground rather than let government put out the fire.

August 14, 2010

August 12, 2010

Ben Quayle, son of every late-night comedian's favorite Vice-President, is running for Congress. Of course ,being a Quayle, upon bursting on the public scene he immediately stepped on a rake and fell down a hole. Its a very crowded primary field, but for the sake of comedy, we can only hope he pulls through.

August 11, 2010

Linda McMahon won the Republican Primary for Senate in Connecticut. That Linda McMahon of the pro-wrestling McMahons. As in, her husband owns the WWE and she helped run and appeared on-camera as part of the whole men-in-tights, women-in-bikini drama. Really Republicans? This is your family values candidate? A woman who runs a company where two women compete to rip each others cloths off on national TV? When people complain about sex and violence on TV they are not talking about The Good Wife, they are talking about the WWE. And Linda McMahon is running for US Senate. As a Republican. What a freak show.

August 10, 2010

Former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, who helped make Alaska a State and gave us "the Internet is a series of tubes" has died today along with four others in the crash of a small plane in Alaska. Being killed in a small plane crash is one of those particular dangers that politicos face. TPM has a rundown. It is a surprising long list. I'm still sad over loosing Paul Wellstone. Politicians have to get to some out of the way places to campaign, and they are the sort of privileged folks who get private planes. But the truth is, small private aircraft are much, much more dangerous to ride in that the big commercial jets.
,
So just think how safe you are, stuck back there in coach. Those privileged suits in front of you in their private little puddle jumper are the ones in danger

Every four years Newt breaks my heart. He flirts with running for President and bringing his own special brand of wacky policy wonk and soulless money-grubber. He just reeks of massive potential for an entertaining President run. The kind of disastrous spectacle best selling novels and a flood of blog posts are made of. But as part of a truly epic and highly recommended profile of Newt in Esquire, someone who's been even more disappointed than I makes it clear that I will never see my dream realized: His ex-wife Marianne Gingrich.

She gives a jaundiced look. "There's no way," she says. She thinks he made a choice long ago between doing the right thing and getting rich, and when you make those choices, you foreclose other ones. "He could have been president. But when you try and change your history too much, and try and recolor it because you don't like the way it was or you want it to be different to prove something new ... you lose touch with who you really are. You lose your way."

Marianne, by the way is Newt's second wife. He divorced her in 2000 to marry a much-younger aid that he was boffin while he tried to impeach Bill Clinton for...well...that.

August 9, 2010

Every so often we see some conservative know-nothing present some version of the argument that "there's snow on my driveway, what is this global warming you speak of?" Then the whole conversation become an argument of weather vrs climate and so on.

Well, Russia, land of cold, is suffering from the worst heat wave since, well...

Alexander Frolov, head of Russia's weather service, said judging by historic documents, this heat wave could be the worst in up to 1,000 years.

"Our ancestors haven't observed or registered a heat like that within 1,000 years," Frolov said at a news conference. "This phenomenon is absolutely unique."

So a thousand year heat wave covers Russia, but it was cold in some places last winter, so it all balances out.

August 6, 2010

Is Google cutting a deal with Verizon to ensure priority access to the Internet? That seems to be the story. This really is the very thing that net neutrality (NN primer here) advocates have been warning about. This is the kind of thing that will ruin the web. Google pays more and Google products (which power this blog) get better access through the web. Somebody comes along with better software the run a blog, it doesn't matter, because the new guys don't get the access that Google does.

August 5, 2010

A Federal Judge has struck down Prop 8. It turns out "gay marriage make me feel funny" isn't really a compelling argument. The case continues to grow for some sort of judicial review of Props before they go to the ballot. Like prop 209 before it (denied services to the undocumented) we could have all been saved a lot of time, trouble and attack ads if only the judges had gotten a crack at this first.

Of course, the courts being the courts, this isn't over. No tux rental just yet. This sucker is getting appealed and appealed again. Supreme Court, here we come.

August 4, 2010

Once again, what was once a crazy idea talked about on the far right has become the stated policy of Republican Senators. Not that the GOP is truly serious about taking away birthright citizenship. Amending the Constitution is really, really hard, not to mention that opening this can of worms might even come back and bite white people in the ass.

Think about it.

I know conservative think that birthright citizenship is solely the domain of brown people come fresh to America. But most white people came to the States in earlier eras, where the paperwork of immigration was much less or non-existent. So you have to show your parents papers to prove you're a citizen? Where is your Mom's papers? Your Grandma's? Your Great-Great-Great who came over back when. If only citizens can give birth to citizens, then you have to prove your ancestor were here legally. Could you do that? Remember, in the new tea party regime, having a birth certificate is not enough.

That's just one complication. How about mixed marriages? What if mom is a citizen and Dad's student visa has expired? Is the kid legal? There's a reason why we have birthright citizenship - in a nation of immigrants and ever-changing immigration laws, it keeps things simple. Born here, citizen.

August 3, 2010

I've always held contradictory positions on burning the the American Flag in protest. I've always argued that the act is free speech, protected by the first amendment. Second, that its a piss poor way to protest stuff. As a symbol, the American flag is just too big a symbol. It represents too much. Its boy scouts and school class rooms and bombs and coffins. You try and burn all that, and no one gets that you're after just the one thing.

But burning the Confederate flag is an idea I can get behind. Nothing good about a Confederate flag. It was the symbol of those who would destroy this Country in order to preserve their right to own other people. And in the modern age it is a symbol of racists. Burn that sucker.

It gets completely lost with the ongoing leakfest and debate over Afghanistan, but Obama is steadily moving down the checklist to get the hell out of Iraq. Today marks the "end of combat operations."

I would just like to note, in this age of total Republican opposition to every single thing the Obama Administration does, from health care to appointing the Assistant Deputy Secretary for Relations, there is complete radio silence on Iraq withdrawal. Not one Republican is quoted in the Times story about how Obama is endangering the nation with this move. The Weekly Standard, war central for all these years, doesn't have a single story on the front page about Iraq.

Considering how much it dominated American politics for the last eight years, it shocks me how unremarked on Iraq is these days.

July 29, 2010

Well, a judge put a hold on all the juicy bits of Arizona's "show me your paper's" law, but the message is sent. And that message is "Mexicans, Stay Out."

I wonder if the grumpy old white people of Arizona really know what they were asking for. Because if you listen to right-wing radio all day, you would think that Arizona is losing a horde of brow rapist and drunk drivers and gang-bangers and such. But really what Arizona is loosing is thousands of workers, and customers and home owners. Guest what, you loose all that, the economy shrinks. For everyone, even grumpy old men with Rush on too loud.

July 28, 2010

One of the most entertaining parts of the just concluded World Cup was the Diego Maradona show. The legendary Argentine player made one hell of an dramatically bad coach. The man had a hundred quirks and sub-plots, from wearing two watches to fighting with opposing fans. He also had no idea what he was doing, and managed to take some of the best players in the world and crash out.

Sadly, we will not be seeing a repeat performance in four years. Maradona was tossed as coach of Argentina’s national team. He was offered a new, four-year contract, but apparently his demands were so outrageous, Argentine Football Association vote his ass out.

Well maybe some pro club will hire him. Sure they won't win, but people will watch.

July 27, 2010

Call it a new phenomenon: the rise of the celebrity spy. The busted Russian are famous. Angelina Jolie has invited busted Russian spy Anna Chapman to the Moscow premier of her new spy thriller. It was bound to happen sooner or later, fictional spy fill our media wall to wall. And the busted Russians are perfect. Clean-up, sexy, and they didn't hurt anybody. They were here to spy on our cocktail circuit and did a bad job of it. Nice,friendly spies we can put on magazine covers and invite down the red carpet.

July 26, 2010

Anybody else watch Hogan's Heroes? The threat hanging over all the Germain prison guards if they screwed up was being sent to the Russian Front. Well, it look likes everyones favorate oil company CEO is going to be sent off to the BP Russian front. I wonder if this counts as "getting your life back."

Oh, and I'm with Atrios. I love British accents. I'm totally charmed each and every time I hear one. I hate BP not for the accent, but for LARGEST ECOLOGICAL DISASTER IN THE HISTORY OF THE NATION!

A huge trove of classified documents about the war in Afghanistan has gotten out and are currently rolling Washington. Different media take different things from the docs, but I'm with the NY Times and the focus on our feckless Pakistani "Allies":

Americans fighting the war in Afghanistan have long harbored strong suspicions that Pakistan’s military spy service has guided the Afghan insurgency with a hidden hand, even as Pakistan receives more than $1 billion a year from Washington for its help combating the militants...

That right, they take our money and work with our enemies.Nice work if you can get it. That billion dollar would be better spent on literally anything. We could light it on fire and it would do more to protect us, rather than put it in the hands of those who help those that do us harm.

July 22, 2010

This is a story that brings a smile to my face. The Valencia Club shut down in June. You know, economy. Well, this guy just went in over the weekend, opened her back up, and started serving. The owner had no idea. Our rogue bar operator started with a six pack from the local convenience store and reinvested his profits. He was up to 12 bottles of the hard stuff before he got busted. Sure it all ended in tears and a jail cell, but you got to love the man's initiative.

July 21, 2010

I know this totally got lost in the race matter, but President Obama did sign a massive new piece of legislation regulation the financial industry. We will be living with financial regulation long after everyone has forgotten the name of Shirley Sherrod.

July 20, 2010

There's a school of thought out there in the political realm that, given the nature of the economy and the fact that Democrats control everything, Republicans are to make huge gains in the fall. The out-party almost always makes gains in off years, and incumbents do badly when the economy does badly. These are pretty hard and fast rules of political science.

However, some are starting to notice the potential for mitigating factors, that may cushion the coming GOP blow. Namely, that the Tea party has driven the GOP to the hard, hard right. Jon Chait, notes that in at least 4 Senate races, tea party right has made things easier for Democrats with their nuttiness. The most famous example being Harry Reid, who looked to be in real trouble till the tea party handed him an opponent that is completely nuts.

Here's Kevin Drum noting that the D's are picking up ground with independent voters. Could they be turned off by the tea party? Stay tuned.

July 19, 2010

Today's must read is a special report from the Washington Post on the nation's vast and growing intelligence-industrial complex. Intelligence in this country is first and foremost an industry and there is a lot of money to be made. A lot of people make a living pumping out top secret reports. The question is, is mass-producing reports like Ford puts out cars really the way to keep America safe.

July 15, 2010

That’s right; your humble correspondent has attended a meeting of the Motherlode Tea Party. Here is what I found. Lots of flag being waved, both your standard American and the more confrontational “don’t tread on me” rattlesnake flag. The sound of Lee Greenwalds cheesy classic “Proud to be an American” was playing over the PA system as I walked in the door. Good turnout, maybe a couple hundred people. The crowd was pure white, which doesn’t tell you much in Amador County, every crowd in the Motherlode is pure white. More men than women, but not overwhelmingly so. About a quarter of the crowd raised their hands when veterans were asked to show themselves. The most striking feature of the crowed was its age. This is not a young and spritely group. If the Tea Party ever did get the heavy hand of government off the back of the American people most of their members would die of disease and starvation once Social Security and Medicare went away. The meeting opening consisted of the Pledge of Allegiance and the National Anthem and God Bless America and an invocation. The speaker for the “Constitutional Minute” didn’t do his prep and stumbled though a reading of the first and second amendments. Then came the committee chairs, pitches to join in and help spread the word, give money, give time, buy a tea party tea shirt and wear it proudly. Frankly, I was disappointed in the complete lack of anger. Health care passed. Financial reform is about to pass. The GOP is projected to do well in November. These are conservatives who’ve taken their lumps and have hope for the future.

The keynote speaker was one Dr. Angelo Codevilla, professor and former Reagan Administration official. He gave a rather rambling speech, a sort of conservative intellectual history in which he objected to both sides of the Civil War, Woodrow Wilson, FDR and Obama. Think about your oldest, tiredest college professor and you’ll get a pretty good sense of his style. The crowd was very generous, eager to clap strong points and laugh at dumb elites, but they were not given much red meat. The only concrete suggestions the speaker made were 1. Vote Republican 2. Break up the School District and 3. EPA officials should be elected. Huh?

So in the end, the Tea Party is the Republican Party with a name change. You could have hung “Republican Central Committee” outside that door and nothing would change. Less people, cause the Republican brand is dirt, but the same kind of people, same rhetoric and same goal – get Democrats out of office and replacing them with Republicans. And you know what, that's fine. “I didn’t like how the last election turned out” works pretty good as a platform. It was my guiding principal for the years 2001 to 2006. But the Tea Party is no revolutionary movement. Its members are too old and too content with their lives, their policy goals too vague and contradictory. Conservative Republicans are now the Tea Party. It’s a rebranding, like Kentucky Fried Chicken becoming KFC to seem healthier or ValueJet Airlines renaming itself Airtran after a crash.

They are trying to say “Forget about conservative Republicans, who gave you war and economic disaster, we are the Tea Party, a fresh force in American politics and life.”

If intriguing international spy stuff keeps hitting the front pages like this, I may not need to start watching Covert Affairs to get my tradecraft fix. Of course Piper Perabo makes a strong counter-argument. I could stand to get hotness with my spying. But wait! Real life offers that too!

July 14, 2010

In the spirit of high-minded professionalism, I've generally stayed away from the more-tabloidy side of the Sarah Palin saga in order to focus on calling her stupid thoughtful criticism of her policy positions. But the latest turn of Bristol and Levi saga is just fascinating. Despite the best efforts of Sarah Palin, an evil tabloid culture tracking their every move and their own teenage dumbness, these kids have gotten back together. And they didn't even tell her! They let her read about it in US Weekly!

God bless you, first Amendment. A federal appeals court struck down the FCC indecency rules yesterday. So once more the world is safe for Bono to utter "fleeting expletives" during award shows. I'm not sure if this ruling makes it safe for Janet Jackson's boob, but we can always hope.

July 11, 2010

The national deficit is created by a simple equation. Money spent - taxes collected = deficit. Note how there are two sides to the equation, spending and taxes and how they have an equal impact on the deficit? I.E. if you increase spending by a billion dollars it has the exact same impact on the deficit that cutting taxes by a billion dollars does.

The GOP want to pretend that taxes don't affect the deficit, that spending is the only part of the equation. Here's Sen. Jon Kyl, the other Republican from Arizona, claiming that you should never have to offset the cost of a tax cut, as if that's some kind of accounting rule.

No.

A tax cut adds to the debt. Bush's tax cuts to the wealthy will cost $678 billion just as sure as spending $678 billion on tanks, or health care or free pie for everyone in America. Tax cuts raise the deficit.

July 8, 2010

Looks like the spies we caught are going to be made part of a swap for ones the Russians caught. My question is - do we trade for quality or just numbers? Is one James Bond worth three ordinary hack spies, or are they ranked by the secrets they stole. Of course, if you get caught that means that you are not the best.

June 28, 2010

The longest serving Senator in history has died at 92. He served 51 years. There's some good to praise in Byrd. There is something amazing about longevity in itself. Just showing up to work every day for that long shows something. He was a clear voice against the Iraq War. He brought classic old-fashion oratory to the Senate floor. He could pull off a seersucker suit, which is a rare thing these days.

But there is a lot to criticise about Byrd, not to speak ill of the dead, but to speak ill of the system from which he comes. There is no way you can be an effective Senator at age 92, and I say that as a guy who helps take care of his 93 year old grandfather. But Senate rules reward seniority, and voter love to send the same guys back to DC year after year. Byrd was a master of pork, sending project after project to a West Virgina that wouldn't rate them otherwise. All the power that comes from seniority and Byrd used it to fund the Robert Byrd Center for the Study of Coal or a airport for a town not big enough to rate a airfield. That is the sum total of his legacy. No legislation to address the problems of the nation. Just a lot of goodies of his home state.

June 21, 2010

I must admit I was rather drawn to the idea of a Presidential Kill Switch. It appealed to my sense of drama, if no my sense of civil liberties. Carry it around like the nuclear football. The nerd hero, the President's personal hacker, storming into the Oval Office "Mr. President, the virus continues to spread. We must pull the kill switch or lose the Country."

June 14, 2010

So it turns out that Afghanistan is sitting on a massive storehouse of valuable minerals. Is it just me, or is this not really the best news for a Country with a massively corrupt, barely functioning government still wracked by civil war? Oil hasn't solved the problems of Sudan or Nigeria, and being called the Saudi Arabia of X doesn't imply a clean and democratic future for your government. But hey, at least we won't be facing a cell phone battery shortage in the future. That could be as bad as peak oil,

June 1, 2010

Woo, I know you've been look forward to it and so have I. Propositions are my life:

Prop 13. Seismic retrofits. Gives a tax break to fix up existing builds to better withstand earthquakes. Which do happen from time to time here in California. Anything that makes it less likely that I will be buried under a pile of masonry when the big one hits gets my support. The Chant recommends Yes.Prop 14. Open Primary. Creates an "Open Primary" for California elections, where all candidates run on the same ballot and the top two run the general, regardless of party. I know this isn't popular in this post-partisan era, but parties are important. Knowing if a (D) or (R) comes after a names tells you a lot, even if you know nothing else. This prop blurs those lines and could even end up with with two D's or two R's. Vote for me, I have the same legislative program as this other guy. The Chant recommends No.

Prop 15. Public Financing of Elections. Actually, just a big toe in the water of public financing of elections. Its just for Secretary of State and just for a couple of election cycles, but its a start. You want big money of politics? This is how you start. The Chant recommends Yes.

Prop 16. Voter Approval of Public Utilities. Biggest scam on the ballot. Purely funded by PG&E, this requires a two-thirds majority vote before forming a public utility. Two-thirds votes are impossible, which is why California can't pass a budget and the US Constitution is never amended. Plus, public utilities can't spend money on campaigns. So PG&E can completely block any competition (public utilities like SMUD in Sacramento are much cheaper) This is why Propositions suck. The Chant recommends No.

Prop 17. Auto Insurance. The second biggest scam on the ballot. Look, I know the commercials say this is a deal, but do you really think that a insurance company is going to go to all the trouble of getting the signatures, put this on the ballot and spend millions on commercials JUST TO SAVE YOU MONEY? Sure. The Chant recommends No.

In the Democratic primary, I'm going to go with Jerry Brown (I know, I know, but he's what we got) Gavin Newsom for Lt. governor (Sexy pol of the future) and Kamala Harris for Attorney General. Don't even think about voting for Mickey Kaus for Senate, not even as a joke.

You Republicans are on your own, but I must say, if Steve Poisner was as liberal as Meg Whiteman's commercials say, I might vote for him. But its all probably lies, anyway.

Drama on the high seas. I'm not saying the "freedom flotilla" was wholly pure or wasn't looking for trouble, but commandos vrs aid workers will never result in good PR for the side with the commandos. Israel is destined to look bad these days. Israel, justified or not, is basically trying to starve out Hamas and 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Much like millions of gallons of oil in the water, there are some things that just can't be spun.

May 27, 2010

I know the right wing has all kinds of fun being crazy about the census. The government is going to count how many teeth you have so they can better steal your teeth and so on. But now people are getting hurt. Some folks pulled a gun on census worker here in Nor Cal, the police got called and a women died. So lay off the census, ok?

If you claim to love the Constitution, then you should love the Census, cause its right there in the document. Go Look (Article 1, Section 2) I'll wait. So greet your Census worker with a smile and fill out the damn form.

May 18, 2010

Arlen Specter, who has been in the Senate for as almost as long as I've been alive, is done. Beaten in a Democratic Primary after he switched parties to avoid a conservative challenge in the Republican party. Irony is not dead, even if Senator Specter's political career is.

So basically this is exactly the Reward the Traitor scenario envisioned by myself this time last year. I mean, we welcome the traitor, we could use his vote, but we can never really trust him, can we?

Its not often that I come up with such a spot-on prediction and remember to write it down, so I'm linking to it again.